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2020 - Starting a blog
It's been more than two years since I began blogging. It all started with a de...
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It all sounds reasonable but please don’t project your disappointment to dev.to — such stuff is all around web these days. Not sure hashnode venture will succeed (I personally found hashnode to be of poorer quality) but keep us posted anyway 👍
And try negative tag weights and user blocking here 😄 it’s not ideal but it helps.
It's not my intention to project my disappointment to dev.to. I'm aware that low quality content is everywhere, but for some reason, it seems like here it is specially problematic.
Also, it's true that in Hashnode I've found many low quality posts too, but in the end I care more about where do the people that interest me publish/read... and it doesn't seem to be here. Who knows, Hashnode might not be my place either, it's all about trying.
I've had negative tag weights for years and react post still chase me! Anyway, I'll still check my feed here sometimes to see if it's true that they are going to improve it.
Thanks for reading!
What's your reason for writing? Do you want to grow your blog?
I write because I want communication with other people that like what I like. People I can help and who can help me, that can learn from me and from whom I can learn.
Makes sense!
On Hashnode, there are tags for each topic.
Some topics are more popular than others (JavaScript for example) and therefore may grant you more exchange of knowledge with other people.
I've been writing on there for 1.5 years and my experience has been great so far.
I hope you'll enjoy the platform.
Happy Writing!
Thank you, Maddy ❤️
On a side note, there is also an option to block your article from appearing on Hashnode feeds (can be set in Draft Settings). Essentially, you can use Hashnode generated blog like an isolated WordPress website.
From my experience, the engagement rate on Hashnode is rather low, but their generated site is very optimal and easy to appear on search engine (relatively to other site builders/generators). 99% of my traffics are from Google Search alone. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and content quality, in my opinion, are the real goal to aim for a professional site.
I actually used that option to migrate my old articles silently. I've seen that the configuration is pretty powerful, you could almost build your entire portfolio there... that's one of the attractive points, ngl.
I agree, I find engagement is quite low on Hashnode. It's amazing for SEO though.
Totally agree with you about the plummeting quality of content here on dev.to - it's really sad to see, and I hope something can be done about it because it really feels like the site is dying.
Can I ask what's "quality content" for you? I'm a writer and would like to know more.
Hi Maddy. I would find it hard to give you a closed definition of "high quality", but there are a lot of things that contribute to the quality of an article. The novelty of its topic, the presentation, the information flow, having a defined target audience, the amount of information given and the exhaustiveness of the research... Not necessarily all at the same time, but the more, the better.
As usual, it's easier to provide counter-examples than defining the properties of a good quality post. But it would be rude to provide actual posts from the platform... so instead, have a look at these parodies of these typical low effort posts.
How to add 1+1 in Java Script
𒊩Wii 💖💛💚💙💜💝💟 ・ Oct 28 '22 ・ 1 min read
13+ 🤩 amazing 🤩 tips for writing ✅ listicles ✅ [don't be mad that you didn't know them before!]
GrahamTheDev ・ Jun 19 '21 ・ 4 min read
I hope it doesn't die, but only time will tell...
Hi @miguelmj
I really enjoyed reading your article ! As a blogger, it has definitly resonated with my personal experience from the past few years.
All I can say to you is: Keep up the good work and most importantly focus on what you enjoy and found exiting 🙂
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it, truly ❤️
I have been a member of Dev.to for over five years and have definitely noticed an increase in non-posts. Submissions that contain too little actual content to be in breach of the code of conduct or be abusive enough to report.
Today I came across four posts from the same author all less than a minute to read and containing no useful information and definitely nothing that could not be learned from W3schools or MDN.
Another post was more of a personal introduction and a plea for advice on learning JS; not the first I have come across.
I am also now contemplating my options and hashnode could be a good alternative.
I've stopped writing much here, I'm personally not trying to start a blogging career but like sharing interesting things I've found out/made. Anything I do write is now just gone very soon and there's this thought that I should write to get more readers and post longevity, but then I'm being dragged away from what I'd actually want to read myself! That statement makes me feel I'm reading and writing on the wrong site these days... I find this a real shame and I'm guessing I'm not alone as it appears that the people I follow rarely post either.
I know that feeling, Mike. Thanks for your comment!
There are many more beginners than experienced people, maybe that's why beginner friendly content gets more clicks and comments. I am also a Spanish speaker and I find it funny that translating to Spanish is a big burden, but it is, especially if you want a quality translation.
I'm going to suggest you not to leave dev.to, as it is usually recommended in my Google feed, that's why I'm here. I'm not a fan of large communities. gone are the days when I was a diehard user of Internet forums. But I just read some of your articles and titles and they are very interesting, I would like to connect with you, if you can share your twitter it would be great and good thing you have a follower on hashnode I hope that site has a good notification system.
Thanks, Manuel! I will still publish on DEV, because most of my current readers come from here. But I will stop promoting this blog, to replace it with the other one.
I see you already found me on Twitter ^^ I don't use it much, so feel free to contact me on any other platform or via mail (miguelmj at gmail dot com) if you want to keep in touch.
Sobre las traducciones al español, obviamente no consumen tanto tiempo como escribir el artículo desde cero, pero, como dices, exigen una buena parte si quieres que la traducción sea de calidad.
Hot takes - stuff that takes a few minutes to read and delivers a reactive response sells on these blogging platforms unfortunately.
Long form posts are harder to write but also takes time to digest and think.
I've been on here for about 4-5 months - most of my views do not come from Dev.to community but from external people as my feed is incorporated in a consolidated community feed.
Dev.to has an issue where it's by in large driven by javascript/elixir crowd and so there isn't a lot of diversity unless of course your doing "top 5 javascript tips that you can do while dogwatching" which apparently gets you a lot of reads. :-)
@miguelmj I think I hear you on this. I started my own blog hungvu.tech as a way to document my real experience, and also as a way to improve online/professional presence. I call this a blogfolio.
My guess is, I'm in a luckier group, as I had some successful articles (at least to my standard). They were well-received by the community and other industrial partners. However though, I fall into a trap and towards the end of 2022. I started making certain low-effort content to keep the train going (analytics!!!). That though, really goes against my original idea of the blog. In combination with things going in life, I decided to have a hiatus since November 2022.
I just started my first article again on Jan 19, 2023. I will try to make it back to an original track this time. There are some of your points I want to emphasize:
Best of luck moving forward!
Thanks for sharing, @hunghvu, I find your feedback very valuable. It is paradoxical that we're tempted to write low-quality to get better analytics, but it seems to be something real.
Thanks again, best of luck for your fresh start!
Great article, thanks for sharing!
I share the same frustrations. The only post that really took off on dev.to was about proving that dev.to is for webdevs and beginners. It is really hard to find an audience here when you try to write outside these boundaries.
I am at the same point than you: I am slowly losing all my drive after seeing how few interactions my articles get, especially in comparison of what gets promoted.
I also moved to hashnode a month ago (blog.derlin.ch). However, I wasn't able to get a single reaction there, so I you do succeed on hashnode, please write a post on how you achieved it!
Hi, Lucy!
I did read that article some weeks ago. I found it to be very illustrative, and it corroborated the same to me and many others; that the data reflect that the platform's audience is very specific and it's not just my impression.
If I find a way to success out there, I'll share it, be sure!
<3
Fantastic